The director of a popular Carlisle running event says it is continuing to go from strength to strength as more people across the city look to improve their personal fitness.

The Carlisle parkrun, which is held each week at Chances Park in Morton, regularly draws in about 200 participants - and Olympic swimmer Hannah Miley was on hand to support runners at the most recent event.

Hannah, who raced in the 400m medley finals at the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Olympics, was one of 100 athletes attending parkruns up and down the country to say thank you to the public for their support through National Lottery funding.

The National Lottery decided to team up with parkrun UK to encourage people throughout Britain to be more active.

"The parkrun here is continuing to grow," run director Sarah Hamilton told The Cumberland News.

"We're regularly getting about 200 people each week taking part, which is great to see.

"We've been going since 2013 and ever since then more and more people have been coming along."

Parkrun offers participants the opportunity to take part in a free, timed 5km run.

Although it is not competitive, many runners keep track of their weekly times and are keen to continue improving.

"It's a great way to get started in running," Sarah added.

"It's a 5km run, so that's three laps of Chances Park.

"And it doesn't matter if you're going at full speed, walking part of the way or walking all the time - it's just about being active."

Hannah, who is a two-time Commonwealth Games champion, having represented Scotland, added: "I think that parkrun is a great event to encourage people to be active.

"It's not competitive but you can always look to beat your own personal best time.

"For a lot of people, it's about taking those first steps and the parkrun is a great way to do that."